


The Light Falls Again

by MiaouMiaou



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast), Yogscast "High Rollers" D&D Campaign
Genre: Crossover, IPRE Crew - Freeform, arrak is one of the worlds that the IPRE crew find on the journey, fight for the light of creation, people are scared because they think its the lightfall, pretty ooc sorry friends, spoilers for HR through episode 62, spoilers for Stolen Century arc, the crossover that no one wanted but me, this is set in one of the unexplored cycles of the Stolen Century arc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-07
Updated: 2017-12-06
Packaged: 2019-02-11 14:19:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12937077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiaouMiaou/pseuds/MiaouMiaou
Summary: A few days after a strange ship lands in Arrak, a light falls in Talis'Val, sending people into a bit of a panic. By the time that the IPRE crew find it, it is stolen away by the cloud giant Fellania. The Starblaster crew team up with some heroes from Talis'Val in order to fight Fellania to get the Light of Creation back and save the world.





	1. A second lightfall

**Author's Note:**

> Okay! This is pretty bad, sorry, but I NEEDED it and I wanted to write it. 
> 
> I don't even know, to be honest. Enjoy, I guess?
> 
> Chapters are short but mostly because it fit better like that?   
> The whole fic is done, so there won't be any updates!

  One of the cycles brings the IPRE to a land called Arrak. It’s a very lively world, in the midst of its own war. The crew know almost immediately though that the people have very little chance of surviving when the hunger attacks, already weakened by fighting. Finding the Light quickly is going to be vital in this cycle, if there’s any chance for these people at all.

  Doing that is easier said than done.

  They see the Light fall, and so does the world. There’s chaos and panic.

  This isn’t the first time that the Light has caused an uproar, but as the IPRE head towards where it fell, they realize that it’s much more than normal. This has happened before, ending in destruction. As Magnus, Lucretia and Barry wander the streets of Talis’Val, which is where they are pretty sure the Light of Creation fell, they learn about the Lightfall. Forty-six years ago, a comet fell and reigned havoc on Arrak. It destroyed cities and awoken monsters across the land. Shards of the comet were left scattered around the continent. The fall shards deemed magic useless around them, while dawn shards increased magical power. Dawn shards were far rarer than the fall shards. Apparently, the Lightfall led to the downfall of wizards and magic users overall. If that was true, none of the IPRE had noticed yet. Magic seemed to be working just fine in Talis’Val and the areas right around it. Magnus had made some sort of goof about it, but everyone had just pretty much rolled their eyes and continued on with their days.

  The goal of the mission today was to go into Talis’Val, find exactly where the Light was, and take it back to the Starblaster. Hopefully they could also calm the sense of panic.

  Following where they thought the Light was, aided by a sensor that Barry had made, Lucretia, Magnus and Barry headed deep into the center of the city, leading them to a grand temple.

  “Well, this is it,” Barry said, frowning down at the sensor and pulling out his wand. “And judging by the crowd, I’d assume that yeah, we’re right.”

  “Great work Barry! Let’s just go in, explain ourselves and then skedaddle! Job done!” Magnus beamed, patting Barry on the back. The man winced a bit and stepped forward.

  “I’ll do the talking?” Lucretia asked, and both men nodded. They pushed through the crowd with relative ease, and entered the temple. There weren’t any guards around, which made sense, since it was a temple. But the Light had fallen quite some time ago, it would be expected that some guards would be present. Lucretia thought it was odd, but didn’t focus too much on it.

  Following the pull of the Light as well as the sounds of commotion, the three IPRE members entered a courtyard garden just to see the end of a battle. The Light _was_ there, in the hands of someone. Behind them stood a strikingly beautiful woman. If not for her size, Lucretia would have sworn she was a cloud giant. Nearly as soon as the IPRE crew entered the garden, those two figures disappeared. The remainder of people in the courtyard swore, and moved towards the fallen figures around.

  “Woah! Wait, where’d the Light go?” Magnus exclaimed. Neither of his companions answered, far too focused on the new source of light, which was coming from a man in the center of the courtyard. He was heavily wounded, bleeding far more than looked like it could be survivable. Surely the man should have at least been unconscious. But he wasn’t. He was standing, panting, holding a dagger tightly in his hand and swearing. What really made him stand out though, was his hair, which was glowing with a bright, golden light.

  “Damn it!” He shouted, then looked around and cast some sort of healing spell. His companions all seemed to perk up a bit as wounds tied shut. “She got away.”

  “Excuse me.” Lucretia said after a moment, and suddenly everyone turned to look at her, Magnus and Barry.

  “Wait, you’re those people in red robes! You came from that ship.” A broad man in black and yellow attire said.

  “What are you doing here?” An elf asked, pushing sweaty lilac hair out of her face and moving towards them. “Who are you? Are you working with the Broken Sky?”

  “The what now?” Magnus asked, and Lucretia quickly shook her head.

  “No. We’re part of an organization called the Institute of Planar Research and Exploration. I’m Lucretia, these are two of my companions, Magnus and Barry. We’re not from this plane of existence. We’re searching for the Light of Creation.” Lucretia allowed herself to look back over at the man with glowing hair. The light was beginning to fade.

  “Show us your arms.” A guard, who looked pretty beat up, said. “Prove it that you’re not Broken Sky.”

  The three IPRE members looked at each other, confused, but rolled up the sleeves of their red robes, exposing their forearms. The guard looked them over and then nodded, content.

  “You’re a bit late to the party.” The man who had been glowing said. “Missed the whole fight and the glowing thing.”

  “Sorry, this is going to sound weird, but you didn’t absorb the Light of Creation, did you?” Barry asked quickly, and the man laughed.

  “Nope. I’m a Lightborn. This is just one of the perks.” He flashed them a cheesy grin.

  “Ignore Cam, please. Do you know what that light does?” The elf asked.

  “That’s what we’ve been researching.” Lucretia said. “It does act as a beacon for something that we call the Hunger. In a year, we’ll leave, and we need to take the Light of Creation with us. Otherwise the Hunger will consume the entire plane of existence.”

  “All planes?” A young teifling asked, approaching. “Or just the material plane?”

  “As far as we know, all the planes that this world is connected to. We have a ship that allows us to escape and leave this plane, to go to a different one. We’ve done it dozens of times already. It’s always the same.”

  “We need the Light or else the world is going to end?” The man in black and yellow asked.

  “Basically, we’re screwed.” The glowing man, Cam, said. “Might as well go back to Arborea and enjoy life for the year. Who cares about the war? The war is ending.”

  “Can the Light be used for anything else? Anything dangerous?”

  “It has the power to create anything, as far as we know.” Barry replied. “It could be used as a weapon, I guess.”

  The elven woman frowned and licked her lips in thought. “So, you need the Light to save the world? And we need to get the Light from Fellania before she figures out how to use it and then wins the war.” She frowned, and then looked up and forced a smile. “My name is Elora Galanodel. I think we might need to work together on this.”

 

 


	2. A ragtag team

  Elora and her companions were apparently at risk for being spied on in any of their normal gathering locations, and after the temple, several taverns and Champion’s Hold were vetoed, Barry suggested that they just go to the Starblaster to talk. “There’s like 5 wizards there, and it’s probably not something that your enemies would know enough about to scry at,” He explained. “It’s probably the best option.”

  The group seemed fine with that. The large dragonborn spoke up, “Lady Galanodel, perhaps you should go with your companions alone. I have a lot to do in the city to try to calm the people. And I’m sure Cassandra would like some rest.”

  “Yes.” A very tired paladin said, looking very worse-for-wear. “I’ll rest and fill in the rest of the guard. Besides, we need to figure out how we can keep Fellania from just appearing in places and guiding her minions. Fill me in when you get back? And let me know if there’s anything I can do.”

  “Sounds good, Cass.” Cam nodded, patting the woman on the back. “Best to get some rest.”

  “You too, Buckland. Rest some before you die again, yeah?” The paladin straightened up and sheathed her sword. “As much as you drive me up the wall, you’re still an important asset. So don’t go dying. Any of you.” Then she turned and pointed at the three figures dressed in red. “And if you three harm them in any way, I’ll have the entirety of Talis’Val’s militia after you in a heartbeat.”

  “No harm will come to them.” Lucretia said, and Cassandra stared her down for a minute before nodding, and then wishing them luck before she wandered away into the temple.

  “Are we leaving now then? Or meeting you some other time?” The tiefling asked.

  “Time is of the essence.” Barry said. “The sooner we have the Light in possession, the less risk this world is of being destroyed in a year.”

  “Very well. Lady Elora, Mr. Buckland, Raymond, are you all ready? I am good to go whenever.” The tiefling said. The three of them nodded. “And I am quite interested in hearing about this traveling between planes. I have traveled between planes as well.”

  “Well, it’s more like different realities, really.” Barry explained, and then shook his head when she only gave him a blank look in response. “I can explain more back on the ship. We should go.”

  “Yeah, everyone’s going to start wondering if something went wrong.” Magnus said. “It’s been a bit longer than we expected.”

  “They know not to worry.” Lucretia hummed. “Though Taako and Lup were planning something good for dinner and I’d rather not miss it.

  Cam perked up at the mention of food. “If there’s dinner involved, then let’s hurry! No need to keep good food waiting, right? Do you have space grapes, if you’re from space?” Elora flicked him, as everyone else chuckled, and Barry went into some long-winded explanation of how they weren’t really from space. They headed on out to the Starblaster, all hoping that something good would come of this impromptu partnership.

 

 

  The walk to the Starblaster only took a few hours, most of which was wandering through the city and dealing with the guards at the outside. Much like when they had entered the city, the guards were very suspicious of the IPRE crew. However, they did seem to recognize their new companions, referring to them as the heroes of Talis’Val. Elora was able to get them out of the city without the proper paperwork, because Magnus, Lucretia and Barry didn’t have any. It seemed as though they had made some powerful allies though, which was looking promising.

  In the meantime, introductions were made. The tiefling was Jiutou Zhiji Jing, and she was a powerful elemental monk, despite only looking about 16. Cam Buckland was a cleric and he looked human, but was actually something called a Lightborn, which was an effect of the Lightfall. He didn’t go into much detail on that front, but Barry was intrigued and was definitely going to try to ask more later. Elora was a princess of the elven spire of the moon, and a very powerful druid. The man in black and yellow was Reynard Ferehorn, a noble from Talis’Val, and a ranger. He seemed very adept but also full of himself. The four of them were working on stopping an organization called the Broken Sky from taking over the Dawn Republic. They wouldn’t go into more detail in the open, so the remainder of the walk to the Starblaster was filled with small talk.

  When they arrived at the ship, which had been expertly parked to be hidden from obvious view by Davenport, Barry told them to wait, and ran inside to warn the rest of the crew. A few minutes later, they all headed inside.

  Elora, Cam, Jiutou and Reynard were greeted by four people staring them down, observing. Davenport was the first to speak up. “Welcome aboard the Starblaster. I’m Captain Davenport.”

  “Cap’n-port.” One of the twins snickered. Davenport cast them a sideways glance and continued.

  “It’s good to have you aboard, Barry told us a little bit about your situation, but we want to find the Light, so anything you can tell us would be good.”

  “Right.” Elora murmured, distracted. The heroes of Talis’Val were all dumbstruck, looking around at the ship. It wasn’t anything like they had expected from the outside. It was such a sleek looking ship, but the inside was decorated comfortably. Photos and paintings lined the walls and trinkets were scattered everywhere; mementos of past cycles. It was so comfortable and homey. Nothing like the industrial outside would indicate.

  “I suppose we should introduce ourselves.” Lup said. “I’m Lup, that’s Taako.” She jabbed her thumb towards her brother.

  “I’m Merle.” The dwarf said, cutting off Lup before she could introduce him. She’d introduced him in dozens of embarrassing ways already, and he wasn’t having any of it this time. The newcomers introduced themselves quickly as well, and sat down with the Starblaster crew to talk.

  As mentioned, there was an extravagant meal, curtesy of Taako and Lup. It was a fantastic roast dinner, and they all ate happily as they talked about much less appealing topics. Namely Fellania.

  Fellania _was_ a cloud giant, and the leader of an organization called the Broken Sky, which was trying to take over the Dawn Republic. They were a violent and vicious group with little qualms about hurting anyone, including children. Cam explained their adventure to First Light, an abandonded city they had been lead to on a mission to rescue a group of kidnapped children. They had all been experimented on, just for being Lightborn.

“It’s no wonder that she wanted the Light of Creation.” Elora offered, “If she was trying to get use of the Lightborn power, a powerful seeming light had to have looked promising.”

“You know a lot about her, so you know where she is, yeah?” Lup asked, and the group all frowned.

“Not exactly,” Elora said. “We know she rules a kingdom of cloud giants, but we don’t really have access to go searching. Not a lot of chances to all fly to scout it out.”

“You need to fly?” Davenport asked, perking up. “I can fly.”

“Scouting missions are kind of what we’re all about.” Taako added on with a wave of his hand. “We’ve got you covered.”

“How dangerous is this Broken Sky?” Magnus asked. “I mean, we’ve taken on a lot of difficult opponents, but it’s good to know what exactly we’re up against.”

“Well, they’ve defeated us multiple times. And they have armies and dragons and sky ships. We can’t defeat them alone, which is why we’ve been gathering people to help us.” Elora look troubled.

“We even united two tribes in Arborea!” Reynard exclaimed. “So we have the centairs and the Aaerie on our side.”

“We’re concerned it will not be enough. Fellania has gathered powerful allies, and has magic unlike anything we’ve ever faced before.” Jiutou spoke up. “Joining us may mean death.”

The Skyblaster crew all exchanged silent looks for a moment, seeming to come to a singular decision. “Death doesn’t really stick for us, y’know, so we’re in.” Taako grinned.

“And we need the Light to save the world anyway. Might as well end a war.” Magnus smiled.

“Sounds good to me.” Merle spoke up, and then they all reached their hands over the table. Magnus motioned with his head to tell their new companions to do so as well, and they all cheered as they threw their hands into the air.

“Let’s do this!” Magnus shouted.

 

 


	3. Battle plans

One of the first steps was getting ready. It wouldn’t be an easy fight, but the Heroes of Talis’Val weren’t called that for nothing, and the Starblaster crew had nearly 50 years of adventuring under their belts already. And they had been impressive before they had left their home planet as well. The nine of them would be fine, they were pretty sure. At least against Fellania alone.

But it seemed unlikely that they would face her alone. The Broken Sky was huge, and they already knew about massive armies and strong allies that they had. Not to mention that there were probably hundreds of other allies that Fellania had gathered. Cam, Elora, Jiutou and Reynard had people on their side too, but they were certain that they didn’t match up to Fellania’s army.

“If Fellania has the Light of Creation, she could get a lot stronger.” Barry added. “So like I said before, the sooner we do this, the better.”

“There’s only a year, how much can she possibly learn from it?” Cam asked, and the IPRE all exchanged nervous looks.

“I mean, the IPRE was founded after the Light of Creation landed on our planet.” Lup frowned. “A year later, we took off, and the Hunger destroyed everything as we left. We didn’t know what was coming. But now we do. We do this ever year. It’s been what, 46 cycles now? We know what we’re dealing with.”

“We do know that Fellania has researchers too.” Elora sighed. “We stopped one of them, the one with the Lightborn children.”

“But we still got overrun.” Jiutou added. “I think that it is best that we plan. Fellania has the upperhand no matter what we do. But if we rush in unprepared, then we won’t win, and Fellania will know what to do the next time we try.”

“One shot then?” Taako asked. “Right.”

“One shot for us.” Jiutou gave him a very serious look. “Even if we fail with the Broken Sky, you all get another chance. You’ve already had chances, and you’ll have more. But this is one chance for us, and that’s all.”

“I mean, I don’t blame you if you want to ditch.” Cam shrugged. “You get an easy out.”

“Yes, well, we were considering having Cap’n’port stay with the ship, so he could get away if things got bad.” Magnus admitted sheepishly. “I wish we could do more, but, I don’t think there really is.”

“I’m not telling you off.” Jiutou said calmly. “You have another chance. You’ll learn from your mistakes this time and next time you’ll do better. You’ll keep learning from your mistakes until you win. You will win one day. Just as we will.”

“This kid’s deep.” Taako laughed as Jiutou finished, trying to break the solemn mood. He quickly realized that no one was laughing along with him, not even Lup, and shut his mouth.

“I’m not as young as I seem. And I have experienced death, and too, been given a second chance. But I will not be given any more. You will, and I hope you will do something great with that.” Taako looked at her seriously, and nodded. “For now, let us do the best we can to put an end to this.”

“Right.”

They knew they weren’t strong enough alone, but if the Starblaster crew had learned anything, it was that bond was incredibly powerful, and strength came from numbers and friends willing to help. The heroes of Talis’Val had learned that too, and with the help from the Starblaster, they began their journey of following their journey backwards and gathering help from everyone who was willing to. They had their list of people, and along the way they gathered even more support.

Small villages of people who they saved from the Broken Sky’s tyranny easily with help from the IPRE, the elven spires of Spring, Summer and Sun who they were finally able to locate by traveling around, small armies that had started to gather together in their own defense against Fellania’s forces. That was just the beginning of all of it. They reconnected with Nalistri at the Winter spire and Shalana and Payla from the Autumn spire. Barry, Lup, Merle and Taako went with Cam and Jiutou to the Underdark to reconnect with the svirfneblin and ask for their assistance as well. A young svirfneblin seemed both estatic and angry to see them, but agreed to help and got the rest of the people on board as well. Merle and Cam spent some time restoring the people who had been turned to stone by Queen Sharisa as well, and while many of them didn’t want to help out, some did, and the others got to go home.

They spent time training, Cam and Elora learning healing magic from Merle, Reynard and Magnus training together, and Jiutou spending quite a bit of time with the twins, training with fire with Lup, and learning to cook from Taako (She was mostly thrilled to learn that he knew how to cook noodles, and was glad to have a taste of home. Jiutou didn’t cry often, but she had shed a tear to taste something that tasted so much like the food her mother used to cook).

It didn’t seem like much time at all, but suddenly they all realized it was nearing the end of the year. Davenport had located Fellania’s base, and they had hundreds of people ready to help whenever they needed. They were all ready to fight for the world, perhaps even more so now that they had heard the stories of the Hunger.

They were ready to fight, determined to win.

 

 


	4. War and Peace

They had no idea how the battle was going on down on the surface, but up at Fellania’s palace, they were having a rough time of it. Cam and Elora were out of spell slots, Taako, Lup and Barry were getting close. Lucretia and Davenport had left on the ship when things had started to turn bad, Lucretia using her last spell slot to Dimension Door with a look of apology written all over her face. Magnus and Reynard were both looking beat up, and so many of their friends had fallen already. Merle was running short on healing spells as well, and was trying his best to keep everyone stable with what potions they had left.

They had made it this far, through all of Fellania’s guards, all the way to fighting the cloud giant princess herself. But they had underestimated this battle, they all had. She had the Light of Creation, fit into a necklace that she wore, and she had learned some of its power over the year. But no matter how hard they tried to sneak it away from her, it was clear that they would have to defeat her to get it. They only had about a week until the Hunger came. They had to win now, or not at all.

Barry used his last spell slot to unlease a blight on the giant, screaming as he was hit with lightening shortly after and he fell back, unconscious. Reynard shot the last of his bolts and went to draw his extra sword to fight alongside Acksul. Elora pulled back the moon bow once again to fire at her. Cam threw another round of daggers, Jiutou tried her best to keep her own, despite the fact that she was out of Ki points. Taako cast Sunbeam before his legs gave out below him, and Lup set a cone of fire before she fell down by her brother’s side.

They were so close, but they were losing.

They were _so_ close.

Fellania, who was bloodied and stumbling, but not quite done yet, swatted Jiutou, Magnus and Reynard away with ease. Reynard flew backwards into Cam, and Magnus toppled over Merle. Elora shot one last arrow before she too was thrown back with lightning, and she blacked out.

No one was standing except for Fellania. They were done. They had lost.

Fellania burst into laughter. “You thought you could beat me? You thought you were strong enough to beat me? Even with all of your friends from other worlds, you never stood a chance, and they’re losing down below too.” She cackled, and turned away from the carnage. A moment later, Barry opened his eyes weakly, and rolled over to see Cam awake as well. He hadn’t died yet today, but his hair wasn’t glowing. Taako tipped his head with a weak smile, and Barry suddenly realized that Taako had saved his last spell slot for this moment, an illusion cast on top of Cam to conceal his glowing hair. None of them had spell slots left, but at least Cam, Barry and Taako were all conscious. If they could sneak up on Fellania, then maybe they could give it one last go?

Fellania was starting to quiet down her laughter, beginning to mutter something about how taking over the Dawn Republic had been far easier than she had expected.

Then out of nowhere, a large purple dragon appeared, flying upwards. It played out seemingly in slow motion as a handsome drow stood on the back of the dragon, extending his hands in front of him and shouting a profanity as he used the most powerful Eldritch Blast that Barry had ever seen cast. It hit Fellania as she turned around in surprise, and then she fell back, dead, as this drow swooped in to save them.

“Trell?” Cam coughed as the dragon landed and the drow man surveyed the scene. “When the hell did you get so good?”

“Shut up, Buckland.”

“The Light.” Barry managed, and Trell looked over, frowning. A moment later, a large silver dragon appeared as well, landing beside the purple dragon, and then turning into a beautiful woman. Barry knew this woman, Lady Ami. She was a cleric, and a damn powerful one at that. She nodded, and then knelt down in prayer, summoning some powerful healing spell that would likely take a while to cast. Barry couldn’t summon any strength to move, so once again, he just croaked. “The Light.” The drow looked at him, confused, and then towards Cam. He tossed Cam a healing potion, which the cleric drank down quickly.

“It’s her necklace. It might destroy the world?” Cam clarified, and Trell shrugged, heading over to Fellania’s corpse and cutting down the necklace, hefting the orb of light back towards everyone. Lady Ami finished casting her spell, and suddenly everyone was awake, and the worst of their injuries were being healed.

As soon as she could, Elora ran over and enveloped Trellimar in a hug, and Jiutou ran over a moment later, pulling Cam in as well. Reynard stood awkwardly beside them until Cam and Elora both grabbed his arms and pulled him into the embrace. “We did it!” Elora breathed, and then breaking out into a grin. “We did it! We won!”

Barry hugged the twins, and Magnus lifted all three of them up with a smile. Elora took the light from Trell, and presented it to the IPRE. “We did our part, you do yours?” She said, and as Barry took the light, he nodded.

“We’ll do our best.” He said.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

The Starblaster left as soon as the Hunger came, taking the light and the 7 IPRE members along with it. The fight with the Hunger was short-lived, as it chased down the ship before they both disappeared into a different reality.

The Dawn Republic fell back into relative peace. There were some issues still standing, but there was no war to be fought. The council of Talis’Val was reelected, and rebuilding started to happen. The Hunger hadn’t left without some damage though, and people were still injured from the battle. Once again, hospitals were full and there were far too few clerics left to help everyone.

It was very reminiscent of the Lightfall, but at least this time they knew that magic didn’t work near the fall shards. It was slow going, healing, but they were managing.

A week after the Starblaster disappeared into the night sky, something else emerged across the skyline. A glowing light, brilliant, breathtaking and beautiful, made its way across the sky. Plants grew, people healed, and magic swelled. Fall shards gained the beautiful golden glow of the comet as it streaked across the sky.

There were rumors, that this was Paylor’s light, that it had returned. But no one was really sure. It was named the Comet of Creation instead. Cam knew though, that it _was_ Paylor’s light, because his hair had been glowing the entire time as he watched it cross the night sky. So had the hair of every other Lightborn in the world, matching the golden glow that it had and that the fall shards around the world would continue to keep.

Paylor’s light was back, and the world was in peace once more.


End file.
